Given the continually evolving and demanding pressures of the pro-audio industry, any product which remains available and largely unchanged for more than a decade must have arrived at a near-perfect combination of technical excellence, operational usability, reliability, and price.

Qu-Bit’s Wave is presumably named after the Wave (wav) format samples it plays — up to four of them at once. A 4GB MicroSD card is included, ready-populated with drum hits, vocals, synths and sound effects, easily enough to get you going...

While home recording has become much less costly in recent years, there are still some expensive items on most people’s wish lists. So how do you work out what to splash out on when budget is an issue?

I recently acquired a Blue Rocket Stage 2 with cardioid B8 capsule, and although I really like the sound it seems a bit ‘stiff’ — in the same way that a speaker can sound ‘stiff’ until it’s been ‘burned in’. Do mic capsules ‘relax’ over time or will that stiffness persist?

After almost two years of construction, overseen by architect Marcelo Tavares, the studio opened in early 2012 in a purpose-built facility, conceived as a multicultural space where people from all over the world can feel inspired.